The stormy weather and cold front that has gripped Cyprus over the past few days has seen a torrent of rainfall, with many dams and reservoirs overflowing and storage levels reaching a peak on this otherwise dry island.
The record downpour of the past 24 hours alone saw some 23 cubic meters flowing into dams, with Agriculture and Natural Resources Minister Costas Kadis commenting: “An all time record for water inflows in a single day. Now that we have it, we should look after it.”
Drenching daily rainfall of 47.7mm pushed up the total for the month to 172.6mm (6.8 inches) or 169% above normal, the Department of Meteorology said on Wednesday.
The wettest DoM stations were Platania (221% of actual to normal precipitation), Kellaki (203%) and Pano Panayia (201%).
The “driest” parts of Cyprus were in the Famagusta region with Xylotymbou and Frenaros DoM stations recording near-100% rates of actual to normal precipitation.
As a result of the water inflows, the national storage level for all dams reached 117.18 mln cubic metres or 40.3% of capacity, nearly triple the year-ago level of 40.49 mcm that at the time had water levels in dams at 13.9% of capacity.
From three small reservoirs, at Argaka and Pomos near Polis Chrysochous and Kalo Panayiotis in Nicosia District that had already reached 100% capacity and were overflowing a week ago, this number has since doubled to include the dams at Arminou, Xyliatos and Mavrokolympos in Paphos district, with Limassol’s popular Yermasoyia dam that has seen many dry spells in recent years, presently two-thirds full.
The island’s biggest dam at Kouris, with a capacity of 115 mcm, is the primary supplier to the Southern Conveyor system, and was already at 28.7% of capacity on Wednesday morning, far more than the 8% this time last year.
The second biggest dam of Asprokremos in Paphos has a capacity of 52.4 mcm and is already at 57.5% capacity, nearly triple from 19.2% a year ago.
Agriculture Minister Kadis recently warned against complacency, adding that consumers should keep on saving water, as if during a drought season.
He said that the rationing system of reducing water supply will be reviewed at the end of the month and every month up until the summer tourist season where consumption peaks, especially after the record arrival of holidaymakers, expected to exceed 4 mln this year.
The overflowing river beds caused many roads to close early on Wednesday with amateur photographers recording the moment and posting them on social media sites.
However, the gushing water caused extensive damage mostly in Paphos district and the Fire Service was called in to rescue a man whose car was found nearly submerged in the Diarizos river.
A month ago, four young Turkish Cypriots died when their car was hurled off a cliff because of the heavy rains near Kyrenia, with public anger directed at the poor state of roads and infrastructure in the north.
